Introducing Actual Freedom

Actual Freedom – The
Third Alternative

Please note that the entire text of the Introduction was written by the feeling-being ‘Peter’ while ‘he’
lived in a pragmatic (methodological), still-in-control/same-way-of-being Virtual Freedom before becoming actually free.

A new, non-spiritual, down-to-earth method of freeing oneself

from the genetically-encoded animal instinctual passions, enabling one

to become actually free from the Human Condition of malice and sorrow …

to be both happy and harmless.

The search for freedom has been a search for freedom from the rigid
shackles of one’s instilled social identity and the search for peace and happiness has been a search for a means of finally
bringing an end to both personal and global malice and sorrow.

The shamans and priests have commandeered this innate search with the promise of an
ultimate peace and happiness in a mythical ‘life-after-death’ should one bow down to and worship a particular God or follow a
particular teaching. This seductive promise of immortality for one’s ‘self’ or soul is a powerful lure that is passionately
fuelled by the basic fear that underlies the innate survival instinct – the fear of death.

The Eastern religions further add the possibility of becoming a God-man whilst on earth
– a position of ultimate power and authority over others that is irresistibly appealing for many – and the resulting enslavery
inherent in the master-disciple system is the antithesis of freedom. The search for a ‘spiritual’ freedom, peace and
happiness, based on ancient superstition and metaphysical ‘other-worldly’ beliefs has been on-going for thousands of years and
has now had its day.

It’s time for a pragmatic and practical approach to finding a genuine and actual
freedom from the Human Condition in total. A freedom from ancient belief and spiritual superstition. A freedom from the
necessity of forever attempting to obey pious morals and follow unliveable ethics in order to keep one’s instinctual passions
under control. And, finally, a freedom from the instinctual animal instinctual passions themselves – a freedom from the
instinctual passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire.

It’s now time to get to the very root of the real problem on earth –
the ancient, hoary and persistent belief that ‘you can’t change human nature’.

The modern scientific empirical discoveries of
neuro-biology and genetics, with regard to the human brain and how it functions, have revealed two very fascinating aspects –

1.

That the brain is programmable in the same way a
computer is programmable. The program is formed by physical connections or pathways between neurons, and this program is mostly
formed after birth. These pathways (synapse) are also capable of being changed at any time. The old connection simply ‘dies’
for lack of use and a new one is formed.

2.

That the human brain is also pre-programmed, via a
genetic code, with a set of base or instinctual operating functions, located in the primitive brain system which causes automatic
thoughtless passionate reactions, primarily those of fear, aggression, nurture and desire, to be transmitted via chemical messages
to various parts of the body including the neo-cortex. Physiological alterations that could eliminate this crude programming, as a
biological adaptation to changed circumstances, are well documented within the animal species.

The first discovery accords with the practical
experience of being able to radically change one’s social identity – the program instilled since birth that consists of the
morals, ethics, values and psittacisms that make up our social identity. It stands to reason that a psychological identity that is
malleable to radical change is also susceptible to total elimination.

The second discovery accords with the practical possibility of eliminating one’s very
‘being’ – the emotive source of the instinctual survival passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire. This blind and
senseless survival program is now well and truly redundant for many human beings and can now be safely deleted, for the human
species has not only survived … it is now beginning to flourish.

Human beings are unique amongst the animal species in
that we have a large ‘modern’ brain, the neo-cortex, capable of thinking, planning and reflecting overlaying the primitive
reptilian brain – the source of the instinctual passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire.

Recent studies by LeDoux and others empirically confirm that the ‘quick
and dirty’ instinctual passionate responses of the primitive brain are primary in that any instinctual response is so
quick and so strong that it invariably negates the possibility of thoughtful, considered responses of the neo-cortex.

We are in fact genetically programmed to be driven, consumed or
overwhelmed by the animal instinctual survival passions. Thus, in spite of all our best and well-meaning efforts to keep our
malice and sorrow under control, to be ‘civilized beings’, we are but ‘brute animal’, at our very core.

LeDoux’s studies concern the relationship between
the thalamus (relay centre), the amygdala (primitive brain/ feelings) and the neo-cortex (modern brain/ thoughts). The most
significant observation of LeDoux’s experimentation is that the sensory input to the brain is split at the thalamus into two
streams – one to the amygdala and one to the neo-cortex.

The input stream to the amygdala is significantly quicker – 12
milliseconds as opposed to 25 milliseconds to the neo-cortex. Also, less information goes to the amygdala – it operates as a
quick primal scan to check for danger, or opportunity, which is why it is described as the ‘quick and dirty’ processing
pathway.

This quick-scan pathway not only results in automatic thoughtless
instinctual-emotional responses but the amygdala also has a direct connection to the neo-cortex – thereby setting off a
secondary thoughtful instinctual-emotional selfish response.

The resultant cocktail of chemicals set off by these responses serves to make the
emotionsof fear, aggression, nurture and desire so palpable as to be compulsive and, very often, addictive.

.

All humans are instilled with an instinctual animal
‘self’ that is the very core of the self-survival program. Although the instinctual survival program is genetically-encoded in
animals so as to ensure the survival of the species and not the individual, in humans the survival program is also ‘self’-centred.

Our instinctual-rudimentary ‘self’ is both palpable and potent
due to the surge of chemicals arising from the primitive brain (feelings). This ‘self’ is our instinctual ‘being’ at our
very animal core – instinctual, thoughtless and emotional.

Further, this primitive ‘self’ is made more complex in human beings
by our ability to think and reflect and, as such, we have a more elaborated ‘self’ consisting of ‘who’ we think ourselves
to be as well as ‘who’ we feel ourselves to be. ‘Who’ we think and feel ourselves to be is both a psychological ‘self’
and an instinctual ‘self’ – both mental and emotional – manifest as a discordant and alien identity that appears to be
located as a thinker in the head and as a feeler in the heart and gut.

Given that the instinctual animal ‘self’ in humans has morphed into a sophisticated and cunning
psychological and psychic identity that appears to live within the flesh and blood body, it is obvious that the instinctual animal
passions can only be eradicated by eliminating both the psychological ‘self’ and the instinctual ‘self’.

The elimination of one’s ‘self’ needs to be total – both ‘who’ you think you are as a social identity and ‘who’
blind nature has programmed you to instinctively feel you are … in spiritual terms, both the ‘ego’ and the ‘soul’.

The good news is that with the extinction of who you think and feel you are what you are will emerge – a flesh and
blood human being, free of malice and sorrow and free of any metaphysical delusions whatsoever.

To deliberately set out on a course of ‘self’-immolation seems madness in the extreme, but one only needs to
take a clear-eyed look at the Human Condition with the mayhem of malice and sorrow and the frantic and futile attempts to rein it
in, to see what is fondly regarded as ‘sanity’ in operation.

Whilst the elimination of the instinctual passions may appear a worthwhile and sensible thing to do, the
real lure to do so is to be found in the glimpses of the innate purity and perfection of the physical universe itself that is
evident in temporary experiences of ‘self’-lessness known as a Pure Consciousness Experience (PCE).